markjazzbassist

the mexican league is about equivalent to MLS. most of the mexican side plays there and they do well internationally and with the mexican side. i think we could get him rather cheap since he does play for a mexican side instead of dutch/belgian/other overrated lower euro league.

Coentrao, almeida, pepe, and the keeper are all out and injured. Alves is a game time decision. The only person we are missing is altidore. I am optimistic and American but Portugal looked horrid against both Mexico before the cup warmup and Germany. I see a win or a draw and would be very very surprised if we lost. My man Dempsey will score again.

Haha now that you mention it, you're right! Pot calling kettle well actually pot calling pot. Hope he takes his own advise this season.

he's looked great for Ecuador, i just mentioned him in the impressive players thread before i saw this. he plays as a winger for ecuador, i guess he would replace pienaar.

mario gotze is overrated IMO. his first touch is Lukaku esque, and he doesn't have a lot of pace, he's getting owned on the left. germany not looking great today. EDIT: and he scores the first goal, go figure.

he was great against the US as well. Enner Valencia looked great in both Ecuador games, might be worth a punt.

i blame the argentine coach. like Roberto said at the half, 10 people behind the ball for iran, only 6 attackers for argentina. they need to take off the holding midfielders and put on more attackers to even it up a little. every time messi gets the ball 4 people are all over him. tactics are all wrong. aguero and higuain come off for 2 others, like for like.

iran with the bus fully parked. mourinho would be proud.

i've felt they've done an excellent job as well. glad to get an outside opinion on the matter.

To all your points, yes tons and tons of kids play soccer (every young child does, hence the term "soccer mom" for parents of children that play). i agree with steve and the money point. i will add an additional point though. in addition to the money side, the scouting and development of US players is where the breakdown is. MLS academies are new and untested, before that kids play for a travel team, basically higher level competition than standard children little league. after that they play in high school, and then college and then MLS or abroad. the problem is that until the college/university level all the coaching is mostly fathers who read a "how to coach soccer" book or watch some Real Madrid on the weekends. i know because my father was one! our high school soccer coach was the physical education/gym teacher! we were always in the state championships every year (perennially a best team in the state) and had a lot of talent, but to be honest, our coaches were just coaching to get an extra 10k a year, they didn't truly know what they were doing, and we were top of the class! so i think the coaching and development need a boost from the us soccer federation, to train coaches to truly understand the game.

agreed MC, i wouldn't be mad to see him go for that either. he's on the wrong side of 31 now, and ain't getting younger.

Let's do some pre-season picks for the upcoming season. Top 7, Cups, and Relegation Top 7 1. Chelsea 2. Man City 3. Liverpool 4. Arsenal 5. Everton 6. Man United 7. Spurs League Cup - Southampton FA Cup - Chelsea Relegation West Brom Sunderland QPR I think Chelsea with Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas is going to be very tough, they'll finally have striking options to go with their parked bus.

english pundits, he ain't english, but he's getting paid by them unless you're watching italian TV

MC great topic I've been debating this one back and forth in my head for a while. Ultimately I agree with you, Stones is better, younger and the future and should be starting. I think a 3 player rotation might be more of what we see next year with all the Cup games and Europa stuff. Plus we don't know if Distin will finally hit the wall with his age this year, so it could be Jags and Stones with Distin as relief.

meanwhile on the other side of the pond every US pundit (Ballack, RM, Ruud Van Nistelroy, etc.) put the blame pretty squarely on Gerrard. I think the english folks just don't have the stones to blame him. here they don't care.

Tim Howard, best Everton player at this World Cup. Let's hope he has a great game against Portugal!

Moyes for England manager? I've heard it already. At least they would play ball that's suited to the team better, the old hoof .

Shukes - we have players other than the English folks you know? Howard has played well for the US. Mirallas has looked good riding the bench.

they were already front runners for the relegation this year, and now with all this turmoil and the fans out, i see them definitely going down. that chairmen is so cheap he makes bill kenwright look like willy wonka.

very interesting MC, in the states they have tons of random piss tests and are trying to weed out the doping in professional sports (football, baseball, basketball, etc.). i've often wondered what FIFA's stance on it was and if they piss test players and if they are allowed/not allowed to take different things (steroids, HGH). I"m looking forward to the comments on this one.

i've got them to the semis in the least. i think they could win it as well.

and i called it. i hope ross starts vs costa rica now

rooney can't score to save his life.

in the us here roberto blamed the goal on henderson for letting cavani have all that space and his pass.

suarez is starting, england same lineup vs italy. with no changes i expect a uruguay victory, roy will be sacked, and maybe the youngsters get to play versus costa rica.